We were up around 6 am and were able to chill out in our room until the hotel breakfast was served at 7:30. There were more guests this time, and I enjoyed a big breakfast of eggs, yogurt and burek. After breakfast we finished packing and checked out, receiving a little refrigerator magnet as a present when we left. We rolled our suitcase out the city gates and took a left – taking a new direction for us. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
On our left under the city walls were many little shops and stands in what looked like a historic market. Mostly there were fruits and souvenirs, maybe to sell to the cruise ship passengers that stream in and out of Kotor. We kept walking, past the remains of a moat that had a guy in scuba gear doing some sort of work (cleaning?) beneath the water. Then we arrived at the IDEA market, a small market where we had arranged to meet our driver to take us to Tirana. I sent him a message to tell him that we had arrived, but my internet connection wasn\u2019t great and the message just sat in my outbox. Kuniko went inside and did some shopping for bottled water, and then we waited patiently. After I walked into the parking lot to check there our driver approached Kuniko and asked if she was Bryan, and the connection was made.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Our driver for this leg, Milos, was a friendly guy with a very comfortable luxury sedan. He set us up in the back with a couple of cold waters and then he did some impressive driving to get us out of Kotor. It was impressive because even now the traffic was getting intense, and there were a lot of buses hauling cruise ship passengers to activities around the area. But Milos pulled out and did a nice U-turn to get us out of town quickly. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
It was our first chance to see something of Montenegro beyond the touristy area of Kotor. We had plenty of time to check out the scenery as we went. The first town we passed was Budva, which was a coastal city that seemed lively – looking like a mini-Miami, Honolulu, or Barcelona. It looked like a place for people who enjoy nightclubs, dancing – not really our scene. Outside Budva we passed an abandoned waterslide park baking in the sun, but the slides looked like a giant albino octopus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Milos had some good music playing on his radio as we drove – Play Radio Budva. With his left hand on the steering wheel his right hand floated out in front of the air conditioner vents in the center of the car, occasionally changing gestures like he was casting magic spells to affect the traffic around him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We drove south of Budva, stopping for a quick look at a resort island called Sveti Stefan island. Our driver told us all about the history and the prices there – he sounded kind of impressed. It certainly looked like there was a lot of privacy there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The next stop was a lunch stop at Virpazar. I had picked this location because it seemed like a quiet place sort of on the way, it was famous for river fish as it sat alongside Lake Shkodra, a huge lake spanning two countries. Milos had recommended going for a boat ride on the lake, but I just wanted to get some lunch, stretch our legs, and keep moving. We got there pretty quickly, and Milos dropped us off and gave us instructions to meet back in about an hour. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
We walked down some wooden platform that ran under the bridge and next to a pretty green river, and then came up on the other side in the town of Virpazar. I was expecting a small town, this was a little bit bigger and touristy than what I had imagined. Lining the street were many stands advertising boat journeys and other local activities, but to me it looked like there were not many customers. The staff looked bored and none of them called out to us as we passed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There were only a few restaurants, so the choice was relatively easy, and because of the heat we decided to sit inside a glassed in terrace that had air conditioning running. The staff spoke fair English and we negotiated lunch and drinks, and in the meantime watched boat expeditions coming and going on the neon green river below us – it looked like a scene from the Disney Jungle Cruise. It was only after I ordered the grilled trout from the menu that Kuniko pointed out how brave I was to eat a fish that came from this water. Yes, good point! Kuniko ordered \u201cgrilled turkey\u201d from the menu, which sounded intriguing. We had some local wines, a red and a white. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lunch turned out to be quite good – my trout was the right color and I tried not to think about contaminants. Kuniko\u2019s grilled turkey was great – I had pictured dry turkey breast but this was cooked perfectly and so juicy. The wines weren\u2019t half bad either. We were able to pay by credit card here, and there was a clean restroom nearby which was also a relief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Across the river were quite a few people visiting for boat rides, and it was hard to imagine this place being as popular a destination as it was. But again as we left there were no takers on our side of the river for all the boat trips being advertised on the street. We went again under the bridge on the wood platform, and came up on the other side just as an old train departed from a station that we didn\u2019t even notice coming in. I didn\u2019t know a train was even an option here, but unless it goes across the border it wouldn\u2019t have worked for us. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
We met Milos and then we were back on our way. He said that he\u2019d drive us through a part of \u201creal Montenegro\u201d as a sort of diversion to get a real feel for the country. It was cool to go down some backroads and see the different kinds of houses. Some were really elaborate, others simple, but all had a lot of space around them and most had fruit trees growing on the property. We did see a lot of roadside fruit stands during this leg. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Soon we reached the Albanian border, and there was a lot of cars jockeying for position. Milos asked for our passports and he handed them over to the border guards along with his ID card. The booth was on the opposite side of the car from the driver, so both border guards were checking us out – I was surprised to see that they were two beautiful women in guard uniforms. I almost winked at them but thought it might get us into trouble.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Once we were in Albania we traveled through wetlands, with Lake Shkodra still on our right. This area had a lot of birds, and Milos said it was popular for birdwatchers. Then we passed through the city of Shkoder, which had a big castle up on the hill above the city. Here we ran into a bunch of traffic, and passed through some pretty run-down areas. I didn\u2019t get a good impression of this place – glad we weren\u2019t staying. We got delayed quite a bit in the traffic, and Milos complained that he was going to have to fight his way back through this on his return. I didn\u2019t know what to say to that. I did share his opinion that Albanians were really bad drivers – they were way more aggressive and sloppy than what we had seen so far.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Finally leaving Shkoder we saw more vineyards, some of them quite large, but they were mixed in with regular shops and small homes. The home designs were a little wild – some had balconies on the front of the house without a door to access them, others had two floors with a front doors on each floor, without any access to the second floor door. It was as if the balconies and doors were a status symbol more than a practical feature.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Eventually we reached the outskirts of Tirana. We passed a huge gothic style building that according to our driver used to be a museum, and then was converted to a casino, because \u201ccasinos make more money than museums\u201d. It was a long straight road on an expressway into the center of the city. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
But just as we were getting close to the city center, we were surprised to be pulled over by the Albanian police. Our driver was shocked, and we were shocked too – how was this going to affect our trip? The police pointed to the side and stopped us behind another car in front of us – apparently we were both busted. Interesting how they parked a police car behind us but otherwise we were still stopped in an active driving lane – not curbside. A policeman walked back to talk to Milos, and it really was a \u201choly shit\u201d moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Apparently Milos and the Albanian policeman have to speak English to communicate. So as an English teacher it was really interesting to watch their interactions. There was a lot at stake here – Milos\u2019 job, license, evaluation, and his customer\u2019s happiness were all on the line. The policeman said that we had run a red light back there, and Milos pleaded ignorance – saying that as a visitor to Albania he is very careful to obey traffic signals. The policeman said the penalty was up to 400 Euros, and maybe this was a shakedown – I have no idea as this is my first experience with the Albanian police department, or any Albanian for that matter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Then a supervisor car pulled up and they had a conference with the officers on the scene. Milos asked me if I thought he had run a red light and I told him that I think he was OK, but honestly what do I know about Albanian traffic laws? Finally the supervisor walked back to look at Milos\u2019 license, checked us out in the back, and then asked what his job was. Milos said he was a driver – the supervisor asked what kind of driver and our very clever driver said \u201cTourism\u201d. Combined with the two wide-eyed tourists in the back seat that turned out to be the magic word. The supervisor let us off with a warning, and we were able to continue. The car in front of us had to stick around. Wow – welcome to Albania!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Milos was able to find our hotel soon afterwards, and he was stressed when he finally let us off. He asked us to give him a good review and we did – I thought he was a very skilled driver and I\u2019m not sure I believe he ran a red light. We gave him a tip and said thanks – he really earned his paycheck today. I felt a little bad for him having to drive all the way back through that traffic to get home. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
We entered the lobby of our hotel, and it had an interesting retro feel and the smell was a little like a grandmother\u2019s house. But it was clean and the staff was very nice when checking us in. He even said \u201carigatou gozaimasu\u201d to Kuniko when she was finished. We got into the small and slightly shaky elevator (the elevator music was a little odd) to get to the fifth floor, and found our room – room 502. The room itself was a little old – it reminded me of our rooms in Minsk. But it was very clean, spacious, and the air conditioner worked just fine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After a short bit of unpacking we decided to go take a look at Tirana. We went out of our room and pushed the elevator button, and as the elevator approached we could hear the music getting louder – it was a spooky effect. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The first order of business was to find an ATM to get some Albanian lek. There was an ATM right outside our hotel but it was for credit cards only, not bank cards. But it wasn\u2019t far until we found a regular ATM. My Japanese bank card didn\u2019t work, but luckily my US card did. Now we had 10,000 lek, woo-hoo!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We started at the main square in town – Skanderbeg Square. Surrounding us were statues and unique buildings, and it was a good place to start off. We walked around and took pictures of interesting architecture, there was a lot to see. People around us seemed friendly, quite a few smokers, but mostly it was a young crowd here. Maybe because of the experience with the police and the older hotel we were a little scared at first, but the town brightened things up for us. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Kuniko guided us to a new tourist-centered food street called Tirana Castle. There was no castle, just an outer wall, but there were many restaurants that seemed stylish, and everywhere took credit cards so we didn\u2019t have to worry about managing our lek. Right off the bat we found a wine bar named Shendever, operated by a winery in southern Albania called \u00c7obo. There we had our first sparkling wine by the glass and it was really good. The staff was really nice and he gave us some free olives and kept our glasses full. There was a misting system there so we could stay cool in the shade – today was another hot day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We were getting hungry so we walked down the street and found a great restaurant called \u201clezete\u201d. We started with rice dolmas in a yogurt\/mint sauce, then firgase e Tiranese (a baked yogurt dish with garlic and meat) and also tave kosi – baked egg and yogurt with mutton and rice. The mutton on top was cooked perfectly – I loved this dish. We enjoyed beer, red and white wines by the glass, and lots of water to stay hydrated. The waiter was a nice guy with big smiles, very attentive and full of funny comments. At our feet cats occasionally ran by, and around us the restaurant started to really get busy. It was a great vibe, and we were feeling pretty happy about where we were.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Finally we walked back to the square to see it after the sun had set, and then on back to our hotel. This was another big travel day, which means that tomorrow we can explore the city at our leisure.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
We were up around 6 am and were able to chill out in our room until the hotel breakfast was served at 7:30. There were more guests this time, and I enjoyed a big breakfast of eggs, yogurt and burek. After breakfast we finished packing and checked out, receiving a little refrigerator magnet as a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3928,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[86],"class_list":["post-3929","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-travel","tag-travel"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/bryan.fredricks.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/img_7218.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pOpl7-11n","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bryan.fredricks.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3929","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bryan.fredricks.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bryan.fredricks.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bryan.fredricks.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bryan.fredricks.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3929"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bryan.fredricks.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3929\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bryan.fredricks.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3928"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bryan.fredricks.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3929"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bryan.fredricks.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3929"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bryan.fredricks.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3929"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}